We've got girls!
The most striking of our three salmon Faverolles
For the past year, we haven't had our own chickens because we've been getting eggs from Aaron and Jenny's girls. But their flock has been going through a slow molt (losing old feathers, getting new ones) for a while now, and they've only been producing a couple of eggs a day. So I've been having to buy store eggs, and they just aren't inspiring at all. They have little flavor, and when you crack them into a frying pan, they spread out like water, indicating that they're really not fresh. Finally I started thinking about getting some girls of our own again, hopefully ones that have just started laying (which, given the growing popularity of backyard birds, is actually something you can find here these days). I'd checked a few craigslist ads, but hadn't seen anything inspiring until I was moved to check again yesterday and found just what I was hoping for: four large-breed birds who have just begun laying, for sale as a group rather than individually. Perfect. So we picked them up last night, when they were drowsy and easier to handle, and today was their first day in the yard. Within a few days or a week, they should be adjusted and start producing what our kids have always referred to as "real eggs". I can't wait.
ETA Saturday afternoon: We have our first egg! The Buff Orpington seemed to be missing, and after some searching around the yard I found her in the nesting box, sitting on a warm egg.
Below, our one Buff Orpington:
Now that the ground has been moistened sufficiently, the yard has become the land of mushrooms... though regrettably, not the eating kind:
On a walk around the neighborhood this morning, I caught this view of striking fall colors:
And closer to home--as in the front bed beside the driveway--my little cabbages are growing. The center of this one is about the size of a softball. I'm excited about having my own. Now if I'd just gotten around to planting a winter crop of carrots.
